October 3, 2010

For those who love Cuban Music, Enjoy. Go to the site below and hear three free songs from the CD.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130275589

Cuban music from the 1950s was beautiful and lush. Equally romantic, though, is the story behind a new album collecting that era's rare recordings. It's the story of two brothers, Harry and Morris Schrage, who fled from Poland to Cuba amidst the turmoil of the Nazi invasion in 1939, then fell in love with the music.

At the time, Cuba was like "paradise," according to Morris, who cites the beautiful beaches and music as enticing attributes of their home in Cuba's Casa Marina, where musical trios — bass, guitar, percussion — sang three-part harmonies.

"The atmosphere was like walking into a fine nightclub," Morris Schrage tells NPR's Rebecca Roberts. "And the trios would stroll along the booths, and would play for a dollar per song."

Using state-of the-art recording equipment that Harry Schrage bought in Miami, Morris and his brother went on to record dozens of songs by Trio Melodicos, Trio Zamora and other Cuban groups. Harry died before he could release the songs, but Morris resurrected the old tapes on a CD called The Lost Cuban Trios of Casa Marina.

Jimmy Maslon, co-executive producer of the project, inherited the original recordings from Harry's widow.

"The [sound] quality was incredible," Maslon says. "They recorded directly to a stereo tape, so it wasn't like it was recorded to multi-tracks and then mixed onto another tape with a lot of hiss, which is why it was so clear. As far as mastering, we had to do very little to it at all."

Maslon notes that the recordings on The Lost Cuban Trios of Casa Marina were never released.

"It was definitely like finding a time capsule," he says. "It was a rare treat."


The Lost Cuban Trios of Casa Marina is the sultry soundtrack to the backrooms and secret lives of pre-Castro Cuba. The songs were produced and pressed on CD earlier this year, but were recorded in 1958 by Harry Schrage, a Polish Jew who resettled in Cuba after his family fled Europe when he was a boy, in 1939. He and his brother Morrie came from a wealthy family, and among the Havana luxuries that the self-proclaimed "playboys" indulged in was the Casa Marina — perhaps the most unusual and high-end bordello in the country at that time.

The Lost Cuban Trios of Casa Marina
photo courtesy Ahinama Music

According to a copy of Stag, a men's magazine from 1950, it offered amenities like plush décor, waiters in white who refused tips, and even two nurses on hand at all times for the health concerns of both the staff and the customers. It also made available musicians who would play love songs for $1, providing the desired ambiance for patrons.

Harry Schrage conceived of the idea to record this music, and did so with a makeshift home studio, complete with self-corked walls. Trio Zamora and Trio Melodicos recorded the son music, which includes more than 50 boleros, cha chas, cumbias, and huapangos that belong to the musical traditions of Cuba, Colombia, Mexico and other parts of Latin America.

Schrage died in 1973, but his brother Morrie explains that the music itself was not unique. Rather, it was the caliber of musicians that stood out.

"That music was all over town. There were probably 1,000 trios in Havana," he says. "These were the ones that I thought were worth recording, because they were especially good."

Though the music is similar in style to that of the Buena Vista Social Club, what's interesting is that the social context is so different. Many of the songs are standards, but in a bordello they begin to take on different meanings. It's easy to notice double entendres in titles and lyrics, and the love songs have more of a seductive feel than a sincere and sensual one.

The gentle guitar is layered with deep, sweet and honest vocals, often in three-part harmonies, and the result is a genuine and kind recoding that provides a glimpse into a lifestyle that most people could never know. "No Me Importa" (It Doesn't Matter to Me" is the opening track, and sets a nice tone for the rest of the record. It's an original piece that allows you to hear the lavishness and indulgence of the wealthiest class without resenting it. The entire album is soaked with much of the same mystique left behind by the legacy of the Casa Marina.

Go to the site below and listen to three free songs from La Guarachera de Cuba.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4660698

Celia Cruz: Her Life and Music

by Felix Contreras

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Celia Cruz, 1950s.
Narcy Studios, Cuba/Omer Pardillo-Cid



Celia Cruz in a studio shot from the 1950s.
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Performances

'No Me Cambie Camino,' with Ray Barretto

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'Rico Changui,' with Johnny Pacheco

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'Cuando Sali De Cuba'

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Personal History

Video from the Exhibit
Cruz: Early Years


Cruz in Mexico


Celia Cruz and Tito Puente
Salas Studio/Omer Pardillo-Cid

Celia Cruz with fellow legend Tito Puente in Havana.

May 21, 2005 - For six decades, Cuban singer Celia Cruz reigned as the Queen of Salsa. Her life and colorful career are the subject of a retrospective exhibit at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

"It is as if the earth opened her mouth to talk and to sing." That's how Marvette Perez, curator of Latino history and culture for the museum, describes the power of Cruz's music to Felix Contreras.

And her image matched. The "bigger than life clothes" Cruz enjoyed are a key element of the exhibit. The dresses on display are variations on a common theme: a style worn by rumba dancers called bata Cubana, with billowing sleeves and long, ruffled trains. The fashion is part Spanish colonial, part Afro-Cuban and 100 percent vivid.

Cruz left Cuba in 1960, believing she would return. Then she decided to settle in the United States. Two years later, her mother died, and the Castro government would not allow her to return for the funeral.

She found the style that would define the rest of her career in the 1970s, working with an upstart independent label called Fania. The Fania All Stars included such talents as Ruben Blades, Ray Barretto, Johhny Pacheco and Hector Lavoe. It was the time when the term "salsa" was coined and Celia Cruz earned the respect of its players and fans.

The exhibit is called "Azucar, the Life and Music of Celia Cruz." Azucar literally means "sugar," but as Perez notes, it served Cruz as a "battle cry" and an allusion to African slaves who worked Cuba's sugar plantations.

And of course Dominicans also played an important role in the music form developed in Cuba that would be known as "SALSA" by way of Johnny Pacheco. Check out some free songs of that era's great music.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19340430




Fania Records' Founding Fathers

by Latino USA


Frederick M. Brown & Evan Agostini/Getty Images

In recent years, Johnny Pacheco (left) and Eddie Palmieri have continued to make their presence felt at the Latin Grammys.
Fania Montage





The recently resurrected Fania label has set about reissuing much of its back catalog, including several albums by Pacheco and Palmieri.

Eddie Palmieri: 'Azucar'


* "Azúcar"
* CD: Azucar Pa' Ti (Sugar for You)
* Artist: Eddie Palmieri
* Label: Fania
* Released: 1965



Johnny Pacheco: 'Acuyuye'


* "Azúcar"
* CD: Azucar Pa' Ti (Sugar for You)
* Artist: Eddie Palmieri
* Label: Fania
* Released: 1965


* Seminal Latin Label's Music Resurrected

Fania Old
Enlarge Courtesy of Fania Records

Johnny Pacheco (left) and Eddie Palmieri, in publicity shots from the 1970s. Though Palmieri was never a Fania recording artist, the Fania label acquired rights to much of his catalog.
Fania Old
Courtesy of Fania Records


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February 25, 2008 from KUT - By the mid-1960s, the boroughs and inner-city barrios of New York City were a hotbed of cultural change and musical expression. For decades, young Latino musicians had migrated to the city, bringing the music of their homelands, then fusing it with other cultures in the city. It gave rise to a brand-new sound called salsa.

One record label came to epitomize this new music, transforming it to a global movement: Fania Records.

The Fania label was founded in 1964 by Italian-American lawyer Jerry Masucci and Dominican-born musician Johnny Pacheco. Pacheco and Puerto Rican-American pianist Eddie Palmieri, both considered legends of salsa, recently joined Latino USA's Maria Hinojosa to talk about the rise of the label and their music.

When Pacheco arrived on the New York music scene in 1959, mambo-mania was sweeping across the U.S. Major record labels capitalized on the fad, and soon records of band leaders like Perez Prado and Machito could be found in the homes of most Americans.

But in spite of the attention, Pacheco and his fellow musicians were often barely making a living. He says he started Fania as a means of guaranteeing musicians income from record sales. "It was just getting royalties," he says. "[Before Fania], we were selling records, and the money wasn't coming in. [Record companies] were spending money like it was going out of style, and that really ticked me off."

But Fania wasn't just a record label — it was an institution, run like a family, according to Pacheco. It offered recording opportunities to the many talented but unrecognized salsa musicians throughout New York, as opposed to the major labels who were afraid to spend money marketing them. "And unfortunately, we don't have a company like that now," Palmieri says.

Pacheco started Fania with only $2,500, but the business grew quickly, inking future legends: Hector Lavoe, Celia Cruz, Ray Barretto. In 1968, Pacheco recruited a supergroup of musicians — the Fania All-Stars — and a few years later, they were playing sold-out shows at Yankee Stadium of exclusively Latino music. According to Pacheco, it was the combination of a historical moment and efficient business practices that allowed Fania to grow.

"Every cent that came in, we put it back into the business," Pacheco says. "And we started signing people."

Fania was also known for emphasizing the African roots to its various Caribbean-American musical styles. For example, Pacheco's song "Acuyuye" was inspired by a children's chant he heard while visiting Africa. And the Fania All-Stars performed alongside the 1974 Muhammad Ali-George Foreman boxing match in Zaire, billed as the "Rumble in the Jungle."

"Well, something happened that really moved me," Pacheco says. "'Cause I was in Africa about seven or eight times before we went to Zaire. And the plane was full of entertainers. But the honcho that was there was James Brown.

"So when we landed in Africa, he wanted to be the first one out of the plane. So he comes out of the plane to go like this, 'My peoples! My peoples! My lovely people!' And there have been 5,000 Africans. And they went past him, and they started chanting, 'Pa-che-co! Pa-che-co!' They went bananas."

Despite its roots in Africa and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, Pacheco describes the salsa movement as a specific byproduct of New York.
[B]
"It is Cuban music," Pacheco says. "But the thing is, like, the idea came because we had Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans in the Fania All-Stars; two Jews and an Englishman. And when you make a salsa, you have different condiments. I said, 'This is perfect to cook a salsa.'"[/B]

Seminal Latin Label's Music Resurrected
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5428061
by Felix Contreras

Johnny Pacheco

Johnny Pacheco, left, co-founded Fania Records, the company credited with ushering in the golden age of salsa.
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Hear Fania Songs

"El Todopoderoso" (Hector Lavoe)

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"El Hijo de Obatala" (Ray Barretto)

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"Introduction Theme" (Fania All Stars)

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Fania Album Cover
Courtesy of the Princeton Architectural Press

Fania's album covers often displayed as much creativity as the music.
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June 1, 2006 - The founders of Fania Records didn't set out to change the course of Latin music, but that's just what they did. Fania signed artists such as Celia Cruz, Ruben Blades and Ray Barretto, who would eventually usher in the golden age of salsa.

The label went out of business in the late 1970s, and the records have since become hard-to-find collector's items. Now, a Miami-based record label is remastering and reissuing that music.

After the long-standing flow of music and musicians between the United States and Cuba came to an abrupt halt with the 1962 Cuban embargo, New York musician Johnny Pacheco teamed with Jerry Masucci (his divorce lawyer and a fellow music fan) to create Fania Records.

The first Fania albums were distributed to local record stores from the back of Pacheco's car. Slowly, Fania built its fan base throughout New York City. It reinvested profits back into the label and was eventually able to buy other well-known Latin music record labels.

Johnny Pacheco was developing a sound, an approach to making music that updated the traditions of Afro-Caribbean music. With techniques such as moving the percussion to front and center of songs, Pacheco meticulously crafted crisp, vibrant recordings for up-and-coming band leaders such as Willie Colon, as well as more established artists such as vocalist Cheo Feliciano.

Fania Records was also important for more than the notes and beats. Jose Cruz, who teaches political science at the State University of New York at Albany, says Fania albums became the soundtrack for black Cubans and Puerto Ricans who were inspired by the Civil Rights movement to become politically active.

"That music was instrumental for the evolution of a Puerto Rican identity on the island, then part of a process of developing a Latino identity once in the United States," Cruz says.

That musical identity soon had a name when the word salsa began to be used to represent a variety of Cuban and Puerto Rican music styles.

Some of the musicians took offense to the literal translation of "sauce" to describe their art; others just got out of the way and let that word, the music and Fania sell their records across the country.

"At first we didn't think we were anything special," Pacheco says, "until every place we went, the lines were unbelievable. They tried to rip the shirts off our backs. It reminded me of the Beatles."

But the successes of Fania eventually ran their course. Musical tastes changed, and the label stopped making new recordings in 1979. Jerry Masucci died in 1997 and the estate was tied up in probate for eight years.

Then last summer, Emusica Entertainment Group of Miami bought the entire catalog of more than 1,300 albums. Emusica vice president Giora Briel says they went hunting for the masters and were directed to a warehouse in upstate New York.

"Lo and behold, there were the multi-track tapes," Briel says. "It was like winning the lotto."

That jackpot could pay off, as Emusica starts releasing an average of 10 albums a month. Interest in the music is high among longtime fans. And in the age of the Puerto Rican-inspired reggaeton music, there is now a whole new generation of Latinos who want to hear what their parents have been raving about for 30 years.